We’ve run the numbers: less than half of the racers who sign up for this finish. We also know that the top two indicators of who gets a beer for crossing the line in Ketchitown is whether their boat has more than one hull and at least one cabin. You can think of them as two dials: dial up the hulls and you’ll get more speed, dial up the cabin and you’ll be slower but more survivable. You need at least one dial on your side to finish the race, ring the bell, and get the beer.

Team Auklet dialed down the hulls, dialed up the cabin, then added another knob they labeled in handwritten masking tape: “Archaic/cultish sail plan” and cranked it to 11 by adding a junk rig.

It’s like rolling a Prius into a car stereo competition, cranking the treble, and hitting go on Chinese opera. Clearly not a blue ribbon situation, but it does exude a certain type of confidence.

Their boat is the usual unusual of the pocket yacht set. Arguably one of the more attractive of his portfolio, Phil Bolger’s Chebacco hull combines a bonkers practical design, comely lines, and all of the four knots you can eek out of a 20-foot hull. Team Auklet’s particular variant makes eyebrows worldwide go from “Hmm…” to “Really?” Two reasons:

While it might not be the fastest (and in this case, let’s agree that there is zero difference between the meaning of ‘might’ and ‘won’t’) Team Auklet’s whole program is the end result of long years of experimentation to create a survivable, trailer sailor cruiser that has more room and water view than anywhere we’ve ever lived.

Beyond the boat, for five years Part One of Team Auklet has been sailing this cat-rigged sunroom around the east coast since she upgraded from a 14’ Peep Hen to a boat with a cabin. Since then she’s Maine-d the hell out of it, Massachus-ed, Connetic-ed, Nova-scoshed, and been as generally impressive as possible for someone in a 20’ boat on a trailer. Part Two decided at 60 to life hack NYC by learning to sail for free, then getting as internet famous as anyone we know when her Humansof NewYork feature hit lifted off. Our favorite part of that story: “I’m not white. I’m not male. I don’t own a boat. I don’t even have money. But I’m in New York City and I’m fucking sailing.” Getting out there and impressive on the cheap—our kind of people.

Welcome to the R2AK, Team Auklet. As long as you don’t throw stones you should be ok.

Presenting Sponsor

Major Sponsors

Supporting Sponsors

The mission of the Northwest Maritime Center is to engage and educate people of all generations in traditional and contemporary maritime life, in a spirit of adventure and discovery.

For the latest about R2AK, follow us on various social media whatnots!